I happened along this article and thought that it had some good information.
So if you’re someone that didn’t understand how the secondary market works
or thought that sites like mine grabbed all the tickets. This will shake that
belief up a bit for you with who is really making event tickets harder to get
and more expensive.

Thanks to Zack Christenson for an excellent article.

The Scalpers From Within

By
Zack Christenson
Research Fellow,
American Consumer Institute

Link To Original Article Click Here

As some of the biggest names in the concert industry are wrapping up their summer tours
or, like Garth Brooks, are getting ready to embark on a much anticipated new tour, the
general public is often left wondering where all the tickets go for these popular concerts.

I am sure you or someone you know have tried to buy concert tickets right when they go
on sale at 10:00 a.m., only to learn the show sold out in seconds? It seems to happen all
the time. The industry likes to blame these near instant sellouts on resellers and scalpers
that gobbled up all of the tickets. This had led some artists and concert venues to call
on policymakers to outlaw the reselling of tickets.

But, now here is the real story. The reason why tickets sell out so fast, at least for
many of the most popular concerts, is that only a small fraction of the seats are actually
sold to the general public. Instead, many seats are reserved for credit card and
fan club pre-sales, and as giveaways to the artists, promoters, venues and
other VIPs. And what happens to some of those tickets? You guessed it, they’re
being scalped and  by the artists and venues themselves. That’s right, it’s an inside job.

For example, in January of last year, a Justin Bieber concert in Bridgestone Arena
(Tennessee) sold only 1,001 of its 13,783 seats to the general public. That’s only
7 percent. Local investigative reports also discovered that some of those tickets were
allocated to Bieber’s management and ended up for sale on the secondary market
for well above face value.

In fairness, other well-known artists have been known to do the  same. Following the
news of Bieber scalping his own tickets, Pollstar, a concert industry publication, said
“That may not come as a surprise to anyone in the concert industry.” In addition, Katy
Perry’s tour rider was leaked in 2011 in which her management reserved the right to
sell as many tickets as she chose directly on the secondary market.

In essence, artists, concert promoters and venues are, in some cases, the scalpers. And,
when the finger pointing is done, online resellers mistakenly take the blame, while
consumers are completely unaware of these shenanigans. Consumers deserve honesty
from artists, ticket sellers and venues about how many tickets are actually on sale.

Take, for example, a retail chain that offers a rock bottom sale price for a popular laptop
computer, but the sales advertisement warns “only 20 in stock.” The warning tells shoppers
that they better get there early and wait in line or don’t bother. If the retail chain had not
provided this warning, the advertisement could be construed as a “bait and switch” tactic.

Comparing this retail chain example to artists that hold back the majority of concert tickets,
however, does have one difference — there are no warnings that, maybe, only 800 tickets are
available to the general public. That is deceptive and should be subject to the same consumer
protection laws as other retailers face. At the very least, artists and venues should announce,
in advance, the number of tickets that are being sold through the fan club and other presales
and how many are offered to the general public. Consumers have a right to know, particularly
since many of these events are held in publicly-owned and publicly funded arenas.

So why do artists and concert promoters do this? It is profitable. They hype the concert, drive
up prices and, in some cases, scalp their own tickets, and some are pushing for laws to give
them exclusive rights to scalp, while advocating for restrictions to prevent consumers from
freely gifting or reselling purchased tickets. In short, their call to stop the scalpers is very
disingenuous.

I have no problem with artists and venues earning profits, but they need to be honest with
fans about how many tickets are actually available for sale to the general public and they
need to stop blaming resellers when fans cannot purchase tickets to their favorite events.
It is just a decoy to corner the secondary market and impose a new round of fees on
consumersneeding to switch, gift, resell or buy purchased tickets.

It’s time for a little honestly in the ticket market.

Steve Pociask is president of the American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen
Research, a nonprofit educational and research institute. For more information
about the Institute, visit theamericanconsumer.org.